Speaking on RTHK’s Hong Kong Today programme, Wong, who represents the import and export functional constituency, said diversifying trade links to other regions and countries would be important for local trading firms looking to survive and thrive in this new environment.
“What I’ve learned in the past few days from a lot of our members, exporters, is basically they just need to diversify or continue to diversify… a lot of Hong Kong exporters have implemented the so-called ‘China+N’ strategy. So actually, apart from mainland China manufacturers, they have, for example, another few suppliers in the Asean countries.”
Wong said the new round of US tariffs would accelerate trade trends that had been quietly taking place over the last few years, including reaching out to new markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
“I’ve seen more and more of our members going to Asean, the so-called Southeast Asian countries, and they are establishing footholds in the Middle East, like Dubai, and the more adventurous ones are even going to Africa.”
